Lovelace
Dir: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
2013
****
The fact that the film starts with a great soundtrack, has Sharon Stone and Robert Patrick as an unglamourous (not to mention unrecognisable) middle-age couple and Hank Azaria and Bobby Cannavale in full on 70's 'New Yoik' swing, you'd be forgiven in thinking that this wasn't going to be the next Boogie Nights. That and the poster looked the same and it says 'The best film since Boogie Night' on the poster and every review I've read has said 'You'll like it if you liked Boogie Nights'. It's not like Boogie Nights at all, it's this idea that actually is key to pulling you in so I can see why some are disappointed. This film pulls you in and makes you want to wish you had a time machine and a handlebar moustache. Then it punches you in the face. This film is about Domestic violence, the most unglamourous of subject matters. This is Linda Lovelace's version of events and even though some of it is inaccurate and a lot of things about her, including the fact that Deep Throat was not her first Porn film, are pretty much irrelevant. Yes she was young and naive, maybe less naive than first thought but then maybe even more naive in her naivety, if that makes any sense? I'm sympathetic towards her, she made a couple of little mistakes and she did not deserve what happened to her. Unfortunately Deep Throat opened the flood-gates to a nasty world that had before been quite small (See Inside Deep Throat). It's an interesting perspective biased on the key figure of what is often overlooked when it is actually one of the major events in modern society. The acting is great, hats of to Amanda Seyfried who has taken a great risk during a successful career. She deserves kudos for this.